


Flowers to Ashes, To Flowers Again

by fightforyourwrite



Category: Cinderella (1950)
Genre: Animal Death, Best Friends, Gen, Growing Up, Growing Up Together, Harm to Animals, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, POV Animal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:42:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22541953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fightforyourwrite/pseuds/fightforyourwrite
Summary: In which Bruno watches his master grow up.
Relationships: Prince Charming/Cinderella, Prince Charming/Cinderella (Disney)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	Flowers to Ashes, To Flowers Again

**Author's Note:**

> I'm starting this thing where I try to put a reference to Genovia in every Disney fic ever. It's what Walt would have wanted.

Bruno looked back on his puppyhood fondly. When he and Cinderella were young, they would often play on the grounds of her father’s estate. Sometimes they rolled in the grass of the gardens, other times they would sit in the sun and Cinderella would play around with his floppy ears. 

Being a bloodhound, Bruno was bred to track. His nose in particular was made to pinpoint the various scents of the world and follow them to the source. Since Cinderella and her father had no intentions of using Bruno for that purpose, it was rather fortunate that Bruno turned out to be a better companion dog. 

Fittingly, Bruno had a knack for knowing people’s smell. When he was young, he could recall Cinderella always having a floral fragrance to her. It always rushed into his nose every time he kissed her face, and it reminded him of the flowers they often played around. 

Cinderella’s father — or as Bruno liked to call him,  _ “Papa” _ — had a scent that seemed to be a mix of two things. Bruno soon identified them as the earl grey tea the man enjoyed in the morning and the gin he enjoyed at night. 

When Papa disappeared, Cinderella’s floral scent began to fade away. 

She began to smell like ashes and dust. It made sense to Bruno because she started spending her time sweeping the hearth of the fireplace. There was something underneath that though, something clean smelling. Maybe it was soap, because she often spent time scrubbing the floors as well. 

Bruno didn’t mind Cinderella’s new scent. What he did mind, however, were all the new scents in the house. According to his master, they belonged to three new humans called  _ “Stepmother,” “Anastasia,” _ and  _ “Drizella,”  _ and to one cat named  _ “Lucifer.”  _

The trio of new humans perfumed themselves with the finest fragrances in all the land. To them, it was a fancy import from the land of Genovia. To Bruno, it was torture for his poor nose. It became difficult for him to be in any room, as the pungent aroma lingered wherever he went. 

Lucifer’s scent was the worst of them all. Bruno couldn’t tell what it was. Maybe it was sweat? Or fabric? Or something sickly? All Bruno did know was that Lucifer’s odor was always accompanied by Lucifer’s shrieking laugh. Said laugh was usually directed towards him or poor Cinderella.

It made Bruno angry that someone would snicker so cruelly at his master. He had attempted to chase Lucifer down in the past, but every attempt was halted when Cinderella would grab him by the collar. Once he was secured, Cinderella would pet his head and remind him that chasing Lucifer was a bad idea. 

In all his misadventures of chasing Lucifer, there was one incident that Bruno remembered the most. 

When Cinderella was fourteen, Lucifer had clawed Bruno’s face, so the bloodhound responded by chasing that smug little bastard through the house. At the time, Bruno was not so old and in his physical prime, so it was easy for him to traverse the hallways in pursuit of the cat. 

Lucifer ran into Drizella’s room for safety and Bruno was quick to follow. Unfortunately, when Bruno leapt onto the bed to pounce on the coward, he was unaware that the resident of the room was currently asleep. He a rather loud shriek, felt a rather large foot kicking him off the bed, then tumbled onto the rather uncomfortable floor. 

The room soon filled with Drizella’s screams. 

**_“MOTHER! MOTHER! CINDERELLA’S MANGY MUTT IS TRYING TO KILL ME!”_ **

The door opened, then the smell of ashes and perfume hit Bruno’s nose. He felt a hand reaching out to grab his collar. 

Cinderella tugged Bruno back to his place in the kitchen. The memories of what happened next were fuzzy in his head, but all he could remember was Cinderella cuddling him in her arms. She sat on the floor with him, shielding him while Stepmother’s voice resonated throughout the kitchen. 

_ “I don’t care. That feral beast needs to be put down.” _

Bruno felt Stepmother’s hand grabbing his collar, then he felt Cinderella push it away.

_ “You can’t do this! You can’t take him away from me!”  _

Then Bruno felt Cinderella’s grasp on him tighten. He was beginning to get scared — he had never heard his master yell so loudly before, so he became quite worried. 

_ “I’ll keep him under control!”  _

_ “If that mongrel comes near my daughters one more time, he’ll be out on the street.” _

_ “I promise, Stepmother. I promise.”  _

After that, Stepmother huffed, muttered something about cleaning up Drizella’s room, then left the kitchen entirely. 

Things changed after that — Bruno could no longer sleep in his best friend’s bedroom and was relegated to the cold floor of the kitchen, Cinderella began spending less time with him and more time cleaning the estate, Lucifer’s smug laughing got louder, and the smell of ashes that had overtaken his master got just a bit stronger.

* * *

Cinderella’s new life was different. No more did Bruno have to sleep in the dingy kitchen and no more did his nose get overwhelmed with the scent of perfume. Cinderella had made a new human friend who loved her very much, and that human friend was kind enough to let Bruno live in a palace alongside his master. Bruno had also achieved his lifelong goal of chasing Lucifer down, so that was something good as well. 

Cinderella called her new human friend  _ “Charming,” _ so Bruno did the same. Whenever Bruno sniffed him, he noted that the guy smelled like chopped wood and the freshest bushel of apples. It was quite a lovely scent, much better than the pear-like aroma of Genovian perfume.

Once her new life began, Cinderella’s old scent started to return. The odor of ashes and dust faded away, and in its place was the familiar scent of flowers in spring. Bruno was rather happy about that. 

He was given an entire room to himself in the palace. He could recall Cinderella wondering if it was a bit excessive, then Charming replying that the room would have remained unoccupied anyway. Truthfully, Bruno had found no reason to complain. 

Cinderella soon became busy with other tasks, tasks that involved her wearing fancy dresses and going to various meetings. Even though she and Bruno were free from the house of perfume and ashes, their time together was becoming quite limited. 

Bruno was left to his own devices. The other humans of Charming’s palace tended to him — they took him for walks, fed him, and cleaned his floppy ears just like Cinderella used to. When he was not being doted on, he would go where he pleased. The younger humans who worked in the palace became fond of playing fetch with him. 

Cinderella tried her best to make time for Bruno. Sometimes she would take him to the palace gardens. She would put a blanket on the grass so they could sit together. Cinderella would then read a book from the library and Bruno would take a nap on her lap.

He napped a lot nowadays. He was older now and thus lacked his youthful energy. His legs could not move the way they used to, always feeling restricted in some way, but at least his sense of smell was still functioning. 

Life wasn’t perfect — Papa had not returned and even Anastasia was trying to get away from Stepmother — but Bruno thought that it was close enough. He had his master and they had a new home surrounded by people who loved them very much. Cinderella was smiling more too. To Bruno, that was the only thing that mattered.

* * *

One day, Bruno woke up in Cinderella’s bed, having spent the afternoon snoozing at the foot. When he heard the door open, he opened his eyes to see his master’s face. Like always, he licked her nose, then wagged his tail when she scratched behind his ears. 

“Sleeping in again, Bruno?” Cinderella asked, grinning. She sat on the bed and let Bruno rest his head on her lap. “What’d you dream about this time?” 

Bruno just laid there, gleaming brightly at his master. That familiar floral smell filled his senses again, calming him to his core.

“Wanna go for a walk?” asked Cinderella. Immediately, Bruno perked up. 

They ventured out into the gardens again, walking around as the gardeners took care of the vast hedges. The sun was shining bright and Bruno found himself enthralled by the aroma of roses in the air. 

Cinderella walked in front of him, clad in a simple dress not too unlike the one she used to wear when she smelled like ashes. Every few steps, she would glance back to see if he was keeping up. Bruno wasn’t sure why, he didn’t think he was getting  _ that _ slow in his old age.

He and Cinderella came to a tree and took a seat under it. The urge to nap struck again, so Bruno snuggled up against his master and smiled as she played with his floppy ears. 

“Tired, are you, old boy?” Cinderella asked. 

Bruno didn’t respond. Like on his master’s bed, he ended up falling asleep. The scent of his best friend and the sound of the birds chirping filled his senses as he slipped away.

* * *

A certain amount of time passed until Bruno woke up. When he did, he realized that he was in someone else’s arms. Charming held him as the human ran towards the palace. 

Bruno panicked and looked around. The sun had set in the gardens.  _ Had he really slept for that long?  _

Bruno couldn’t find Cinderella, so he began to whimper. Soon enough though, he spotted his master running beside her human friend. His initial panic lessened, but he couldn’t say that he was happy. There was an uncomfortable pain inside of his stomach, something that made it difficult to even bark. He suddenly became more thankful that Cinderella’s human friend was willing to carry him. 

“It’s going to be okay, Bruno,” Cinderella said, but her voice made it seem like it wouldn’t. “I promise you, it’s going to be okay.” 

Charming took Bruno into the palace. Once there, various servants surrounded the couple. They rushed Bruno up to random room he had not been in before and set him down on an empty bed. 

From that point on, the events around him rushed by quickly. Servants fed him food he could barely taste and Cinderella tried to give him water. There was a sense of fear in the air, the kind that made Bruno very upset. He kept noticing the worry that claimed Cinderella as she moved, something that made her motions heavy. He never liked it when she felt that way. 

Somehow, Bruno managed to sleep peacefully that night. In the morning, Cinderella and Charming had brought a strange bespectacled man to look at him. For about an hour, the strange man poked and prodded at Bruno’s body, humming every once in a while as he did. Like the night before, Bruno could not move. It just hurt too much to do so. 

Bruno wished he could get off the bed and go to his master, he wished he could run up and nap in her bed like nothing was wrong, he wished they could play in the garden and roll in the grass like in their early days. But now more than ever, he knew he couldn’t.

When the strange man finished his examination of Bruno, he left the room. Behind the door, he could hear the sounds of Cinderella’s voice, Charming’s as well. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t quite understand what was being said. He wasn’t sure that wanted to, because he heard the sound of sobbing and that made him quite worried.

Time passed again. Bruno went to sleep for a few minutes, then he woke up when he heard the door creaking. When he opened his eyes, Cinderella was there, just like before. When she leaned down, her face was streamed in tears. Bruno didn’t like looking at her like this. 

“Hey, old boy,” said Cinderella. She leaned against the bed as she scratched Bruno’s ears. “You’re going to be okay, I promise.” 

Bruno kissed her face and that seemed to make her smile, but it didn’t last for as long. Cinderella’s grin faded away in mere moments. 

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine,” she continued. She pressed her forehead against his, then began whispering her words. “You’ve been the greatest friend anyone could have. I love you, I have  _ always _ loved you.” 

Bruno wasn’t sure what those words meant, but for a reason he couldn’t understand, he felt happy.

Cinderella stayed close to her beloved friend for a while. Bruno closed his eyes and went to sleep. The last thing he ever dreamt about was playing in the gardens as a puppy, lounging on a warm bed, and the scent of flowers in the spring.

* * *

Time passed and Cinderella mourned her old friend. 

The King had insisted that they erect a statue in town in Bruno’s honor, but Cinderella told him that it wasn’t necessary. She instead preferred to mourn in her own way, which involved being rather solitary about the matter. 

Charming arranged for a private burial, doing his best to keep the event low key. He had been doing anything to comfort his wife ever since the fateful night, holding her in his arms and letting her cry into his shoulder included.

She grieved in stages. The first time she woke up in the morning without Bruno snoozing at the foot of her bed, she broke down in tears. The second time, she was hit with an unbearable amount of emptiness. The third time, she began wondering just how long it would take until she got used to not seeing him there. 

Over a year later, Cinderella came to her bedchambers to find a box. On it was a note and a ribbon, and inside it was something she really didn’t expect.

“She’s a gift from my Dad,” said Charming. He stood with his hands in his pockets and watched his father’s “gift” run around the room and sniff the carpets. 

“I figured,” Cinderella replied. She knelt down to the little Beagle puppy and let it sniff her hand. “But my birthday was two months ago.” 

“He knows,” Charming continued. “He just thought... well… we just wanted you to be happy.”

Cinderella something tense inside of her, and then she wasn’t sure if she was going to start smiling or burst into tears. But she looked to her husband, walked over, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. 

“Thank you,” she said. She re-focused her attention onto the puppy — she got on her knees and patted her lap, trying to entice the little one to come towards her. 

The Beagle sniffed around some more, then finally made its way towards Cinderella. Charming sat down as well and watched his wife play around with their new friend. The puppy had a medium brown coat and a pale white belly, her eyes were dark and her ears were cute and floppy. 

“What should we name her?” asked Charming. 

The Beagle soon hopped into Cinderella’s grasp. She picked it up and looked into its deep brown eyes. Cinderella hummed, then said: “Does she look like a Maisie to you?” 

**Author's Note:**

> I was pretty close to not including that lil' epilogue then I remembered I'm not THAT much of a soulless bastard.


End file.
